Erin Smith
Santa Cruz, CA - California, United States
Erin Smith was diagnosed with celiac disease in the early 1980s, so she’s been eating gluten-free almost her entire life. Erin has a unique perspective of growing up in the gluten-free community and blogs about living — and enjoying — a gluten-free lifestyle.
Erin Smith has been writing her gluten-free lifestyle blog Gluten-Free Fun since 2007. In 2011, she launched Gluten-Free Globetrotter, a website that encourages those with celiac disease to travel the world and not be scared about eating gluten-free domestically and abroad. Erin is also the lead organizer of the NYC Celiac Disease Meetup group, a social community that has grown to over 1850 members in the 8 years she has been organizing the group.
http://glutenfreefun.blogspot.com
http://glutenfreeglobetrotter.comSee my complete profile

"As a mom of 3, this would certainly be a great cookbook to possibly win, THANKS!"

I hope you enjoy this cookbook as much as I do, Heather.

This morning, Kim McCosker was on the Today Show with Kathie Lee and Hoda whipping up some delicious gluten-free pork chops with polenta and a baked ricotta for dessert.

Check it out:

Kim McCosker, author of “4 Ingredients Gluten-Free,” shows home cooks how to make weeknight family dinner simple and healthy for anyone who is gluten-intolerant, demonstrating recipes for pork with parmesan polenta and baked ricotta with blueberry sauce.

A couple of years ago, I bought my sister a slow cooker for Christmas. Being a mom of young kids, I thought this would be a helpful tool to have in the kitchen. It took her close to a year to finally take it out of the box and now she uses it all the time. Fast forward to this past Christmas when I bought my mom a slow cooker. Guess what? She also left it in the box for a couple of months. Once she opened it, Momma realized how easy it is to throw together a delicious meal in a slow cooker. Now, I am the only one in my family without a slow cooker but my birthday is just around the corner. Hint hint, sis and mom!

Although I don't have a slow cooker (yet), I do appreciate a new cookbook. The other day, I was sent Everyday Gluten-Free Slow Cooking by Kimberly Mayone and Kitty Broihier, MS, RD. This is a lovely, hardcover cookbook full of more than 140 gluten-free slow cooker recipes. Kimberly and Kitty are cookbook authors and moms "who saw a need to combine gluten-free recipes with the slow cooking method in order to help people simplify their cooking lives and still produce great tasting food for themselves and their families."

From what my mom and sister tell me, the slow cooker is all about ease and one-pot cooking. As a fellow Celiac, this book will be perfect for my sister and her gluten-free family. I can't wait to come over for dinner!

Want to win your own copy? Just leave a comment below with your email address and I will choose a winner on April 4th.

Red quinoa and red kidney beans provide the protein in this meat-free chili, and ground chipotle chilies, fresh jalapeños, and paprika provide the spice. Even meat lovers will be happy with this substantial chili. Serve it with corn chips or homemade cornbread (page 188). This recipe freezes and reheats well.

Attention Marathon Runners of all ages...

Celiac Disease Foundation Team Gluten-Free™ is recruiting runners for the ING New York City Marathon on November 4, 2012.

Whether you've run in a marathon before or want this to be your first time... Team Gluten-Free would like to hear from you! Team Gluten-Free needs a group of 5 runners to make up the official team for marathon registration and cannot confirm your entry until five runners have committed to participate.

Please email Team Gluten Free as soon as possible and let them know if you are interested. They will send you registration information once you have emailed them.

4 Ingredients Gluten-Free is coming to America! This new book is about to take the US by storm. With recipes that only require four gluten-free ingredients, you will be making some of the easiest and delicious meals in town. There are more than 400 new and exciting gluten-free recipes in this new cookbook now available on Amazon.com.

Although I haven't met Kim in person yet, I've had the privilege of meeting some of the dynamic 4 Ingredients team behind this international bestselling cookbook series. I am so excited that I am finally meeting Kim in person this week after months of email exchanges. Stay tuned for photos.

Want to win a copy of this 4 Ingredients Gluten-Free cookbook? Just leave a comment below with your email address and I will enter you in the random drawing. Winner will be chosen on Tuesday, March 27, 2012.

Press Release

4 Ingredients Gluten-Free

By Rachael Bermingham and Kim McCosker

The internationally bestselling authors of 4 Ingredients return with hundreds of delicious, money-saving, and time-saving recipes using four or fewer ingredients--and all gluten-free!

“4 Ingredients makes gluten free cooking accessible to everyone. If you’re looking for fast, simple, and tasty recipes, this is definitely the way to go!” —Jilly Lagasse and Jessie Lagasse Swanson, authors of The Gluten Free Table (4 Ingredients Gluten-Free)

Imagine mouth-watering Buckwheat Pancakes, Sun-dried Pesto Pasta, Grilled Pork with Parmesan Polenta, and a decadent serving of Bread and Butter Pudding. All can be prepared using four or fewer ingredients--gluten-free!

Kim McCosker and Rachael Bermingham, the internationally bestselling authors who brought you 4 Ingredients, have once again created more than 400 quick, easy, and delicious recipes that only require four ingredients. This time, however, they have all received The Australian Coeliac Society's gluten-free stamp of approval. Included are fantastic dishes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and entertaining, as well as gluten-free lunchbox meals and recipes for babies and toddlers.

With 4 Ingredients Gluten-Free, home chefs will learn how to:

* Make weeknight family dinners simple, special, and healthy for anyone in the family who is gluten intolerant.
* Provide delicious, home-cooked meals and spend less money.
* Cook with fewer utensils—1 teaspoon, 1 tablespoon, and 1 measuring cup.
* Spend less time at the sink. Four ingredients for each dish means less cleanup!

Find out what home chefs all over the world have already discovered. 4 Ingredients Gluten Free is perfect for the busy, budget-conscious, health-minded cook!

Kim McCosker and Rachael Bermingham are childhood friends, working moms, and authors of the international bestselling cookbooks, 4 Ingredients, 4 Ingredients 2, and 4 Ingredients Gluten-Free. They live in Australia with their families. Visit their website at 4Ingredients.com.au or on Facebook.com/4Ingredients

Have you heard of Kickstarter yet? It's a cool website that helps fund creative projects. People from across the country post projects that they are putting their heart and soul into. All they need is some help from you and your wallets. Kickstarter lets strangers (and friends) help fund these projects in a cool way. People donate money to your project but the financial goals must be met or no money is exchanged. Sadly, many projects fail to be fully funded, but often the projects are a success and some awesome businesses are started with help from you.

More about Kickstarter:

Kickstarter is the world's largest funding platform for creative projects. Every week, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields.

A new form of commerce and patronage. This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project.

All or nothing funding. On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

I have been looking into Kickstarter a lot lately with thoughts of a project that has been brewing for a while now. I'm not quite ready to post about it yet, but when I do you will read about it here first! In the meantime, there are 7 active gluten-free related projects on Kickstarter looking for funding. This includes a project for artisanal ice creams and desserts started by Catherine of A Gluten-Free Guide. Catherine is one of the very first people I met in the NYC Celiac community way back in 2004. Catherine's gluten-free travels and photographs of her food have always been inspiring and delicious so I am sure that Luca and Bosco will be nothing less than amazing.

Want to help out a gluten-free project? Check out some of these projects.

Rice is the staple of most gluten-free diets. This was my safe grain growing up and is my go-to grain for many of my dinners today. When not participating in my marathon Sunday cooking sessions, I am quickly throwing together meals during the week after a long day at work. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that you can microwave boil-in-the-bag brown rice. While I am chopping and preparing my meal, the rice is cooking away unassisted. This is awesome!

Recently, I found myself looking for a quick meal one night after work. I always have rice on hand so I decided to throw together a colorful brown rice salad. This was quick to prepare and full of flavor with lots of leftovers. A perfect weeknight meal.

Directions:
1. Cook the bag of rice in a microwavable container full of water for about 10 minutes.
2. While rice is cooking, chop up the avocado and tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and lemon juice.
3. Heat the rinsed black beans and corn either on stovetop or microwave for 5 minutes.
4. Drain rice and toss with heated beans and corn. Stir in cumin and chili powder to taste.
5. Top with avocado and tomato salad and lots of shredded cheese.
6. ENJOY!

Back in November, I "tweeted" something about the crappy gluten-free iPhone apps I had been downloading. An innocent response from an app developer agreeing with me on the "underwhelming" apps on the market triggered a flurry of emails. Through these emails, I learned about a new app that was going to be a "service that helps identify the specific foods that people with a gluten allergy find and enjoy at restaurants and venues around them." A few more emails and an early Sunday morning coffee meeting with David and Roger of Grande Labs was my first introduction to the Dish Freely iPhone app.

Through emails and in-person meetings, I learned more about Dish Freely and their mission to provide quality content and an interactive platform for the gluten-free community. As a person that is really intrigued by social media, I was excited to connect with these guys both in person and through my iPhone with their new app.

Fast forward three months and Dish Freely is finally here. With an awesome launch party at Heather's Bar on February 22, Dish Freely hit the gluten-free New York City scene with gusto. The trio behind Dish Freely (David, Roger, and Luke) were all in attendance as well more than 35 NYC Celiac Meetup members and other fans and friends. Bard's Beer was flowing (in bottles, of course) and Antonella of Krumville Bake Shop was handing out some of the most delicious gluten-free appetizers I ever ate. Everyone was in a good mood and welcomed Dish Freely onto the NYC tech scene with open arms. Even though the Dish Freely app is currently only available on the iPhone, the Android fans came out to support the launch party too! Stay tuned, Droid fans!

The DishFreely trio drinks their first gluten-free beers thanks to Bard's Beer.

Since the launch, DishFreely has been getting some really awesome press thanks to Mashable, The Frugal Girls, Without Wheat, and Yahoo! News. I am excited that there has been so much hype around this app. I really feel that DishFreely brings a sense of "normalcy" to the average gluten-free diner. We now have a tool we can use on-the-go to find local gluten-free dishes without making a big fuss. It also helps bring our community together on a mobile social platform. I've been using DishFreely as often as I dine out and it is a fun way to inform others about gluten-free food in our great city. I wish DishFreely the best of luck for their current app and beyond!

DishFreely also launched the Eat Freely app just this week! Eat Freely is for anyone to share the dishes they like at restaurants across the country.

ABOUT DISH FREELY

Dish Freely is an iPhone app that gives gluten-free eaters an easy way to share the safest and best-tasting food and drinks at restaurants. When you find a good gluten-free dish at a restaurant, you can add it to the app so that you and others can easily find it later. You can also rate each dish, add photos and comments, and even check-in to Foursquare. The more you use the app, the more amazing a tool all gluten-free eaters will have to find something to eat that is safe and delicious!

Bard’s is the finest gluten-free craft beer made with 100% malted sorghum. Unlike most gluten-free beers, Bard’s malts their sorghum to give it a robust flavor and doesn’t use adjuncts like rice that thin it out. It’s a premium product with exceptional flavor and it’s 100% safe for the gluten-free community. http://www.bardsbeer.com/

Heathers Bar (506 E. 13th St, NYC) has long been a friend to the gluten-free community and to our meetup. Heathers offers a wide range of beer, wine and spirits, and is one of the bars in Manhattan that specifically caters to people with gluten sensitivities. Both the owner and manager are gluten sensitive, and they do their best to maintain a safe environment for others who may have similar sensitivities.

As you may know, I am co-hosting a Gluten-Free Gourmet Weekend this June in Vermont. I am really excited about this weekend, especially since I get to host with one of my good friends Kristen Siebecker. I met Kristen through the NYC Celiac Meetup group a couple of years ago. She is one of those people that I let cross over to the other side... the friend side. I am a bit cautious about which group members I socialize with out of the group because I try to maintain a leader/member relationship with most. Kristen and I hit it off after a wine tasting at her house and we have been friends ever since. (She had me at WINE!) I know working with Kristen and the other great co-hosts that weekend is going to make for an awesome weekend. We leave from NYC on June 21st and return on June 24th. With three days out of New York City full of gluten-free food, nature, and wine, I am sure I will come back refreshed and rejuvenated.

Last week, we added a gluten-free chef and yoga teacher to our co-host line up of our Gluten-Free Gourmet Weekend. With 6 great "staff" and all of the weekend attendees, I am sure my first Gluten-Free Gourmet Weekend at Good Commons is going to be a huge success!

Our new co-hosts:Olivia Dupin (Gluten-Free Baking for the Home Cook) is a private chef, recipe developer, and consultant and is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. She specializes in delicious, gluten-free food. Since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2009, she has committed herself to creating great recipes that allow those with dietary restrictions to make simple substitutions and still enjoy the foods they love. She has worked as a private chef for professional athletes and celebrity personalities alike. Her efforts as a recipe developer includes work on the New York Times best-selling cookbook of healthy family recipes, low-calorie meals for Energy Kitchen Restaurants, and most recently on her very own book, a gluten-free reference guide and cookbook, to be released this fall. Olivia also maintains a blog dedicated to gluten-free recipes at livglutenfree.com.

Elyse Sparkes has been igniting health in individuals through Sparkes Wellness since 2005. She has orked with a broad range of clients to meet their unique health goals. She has helped people lose weight, gain muscle, rehabilitate from injury increase flexibility, decrease stress, and find overeall wellness in their lives. Elyse is a certified personal trainer, accredited by the American Council on Exercise (ACE). She has studied Thai yoga massage under Ananda Apfelbaum and is certified through the Thai Massage Sacred Bodywork Center in NYC. She recently went to Thailand to study with master teacher Pichest Bonthume. In Chiange Mai, she also studied Osteo Thai with David Lutt, and Chi Nei Tsang (Abdonminal Chi Massage). Elyse is a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT) certified by Cyndi Lee's Om Yoga Center in NYC. She is particularly inspired to teach yoga to cancer survivors and studied with Tari Prinster in OM Yoga's Women Cancer Survivor Teacher Training.

Want to learn more? Want a discount on the weekend? CLICK HERE! Discount for my Meetup members and blog readers through march 31, 2012!

NJY Camps are proud to offer an exclusive experience in partnership with the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University, a Gluten Free Family Camping Weekend. Go spend the weekend enjoying the outdoors and consulting with specialized Celiac Disease Center Professionals. A family getaway with a private cabin, including pools, lakes, ropes courses, art shops, family entertainment, kosher gluten-free meals, day camp for kids and programming for adults.

Hello. My name is Erin Smith, I am a Celiac since 1981, and I have consumed gluten. Yes, it is true and not something I am necessarily proud of but something I needed to admit to my readers. This consumption was not recent, but was part of my youth. I ate gluten more than once... knowingly. Are you shocked yet?

Honestly, I think a lot of my gluten consumption was one part youth rebellion/trying to fit in and one part complete lack of information. I was diagnosed in the pre-internet era. Although we had some information about being gluten-free, it was really limited. No one used the words "cross contamination" in the 80s and 90s. There were no "Top 8" labeling laws. My parents thought as long as I wasn't physically ingesting gluten-filled products, I was safe. This meant a lot of eating habits that I would NEVER do today.

I am in the middle of reading Don't Kill the Birthday Girl by Sandra Beasley and one page I read yesterday hit really close to home. So close to home that I felt like I was reliving part of my childhood and it prompted this post. Sandra has anaphylactic food allergies. This means she can die if she consumed the wrong food. I feel lucky that I have Celiac Disease and not anaphylaxis when I read things like this book.

At one point in her life, Sandra's mom took a piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken, peeled off the batter, skin, and fat of the chicken breast and then fed it to Sandra. This may sound so simple but for someone severely allergic to dairy this was a risky endeavor. The crazy thing is that my dad used to do the same exact thing. We would go to McDonald's for dinner and he would peel every chicken nugget in my Happy Meal. Yep, you read that correctly. I used to eat gluten-covered nuggets on a regular basis. Again, whether this was due to the lack of information or just plain confusion or understanding about cross-contamination, it is unclear. But I ate nuggets and so many other things that it is not surprising I had a stomach ache most of my growing years. Do you know what I did to feel better? I popped Pepto tablets on a regular basis. Know what makes this even worse??? Pepto in the 1980s and early 90s was coated in FLOUR!!!!

As part of this post, I wanted to list out some of the gluten consumption of years passed. Please note, I have not knowingly consumed gluten in years now. I NEVER EVER EVER CHEAT because the consequences are not worth it. If I eat gluten, I feel like shit for days after and don't want to put myself in that situation. Growing up, sometimes I did certain things to fit in, sometimes I ate things because I was hungry and sometimes I just didn't realize what I was doing could actually hurt me. Without further ado, here is the shocking list of things I did as a diagnosed celiac growing up in the 1980s:

Ate peeled chicken nuggets from McDonald's

Licked the creme from Bavarian creme Dunkin Donuts and munchkins

Ate cheese off pizza

Licked icing off birthday cake, cupakes, Oreo cookies, etc.

Ate the salt from bottom of the Bachman pretzel stix boxes

Peeled onion rings from the diner and ate the onions that had been battered

Used soy sauce

Ate the filling out of Chinese dumplings

Take wheat-covered Pepto every damn day. (No labeling of top 8 allergens back then)

Drank beer

Disclaimer: I DO NOT PROMOTE CHEATING ON YOUR GLUTEN-FREE DIET AS A CELIAC. This post is to simply point out how my lack of understanding of the disease during my childhood led to some really careless and dangerous eating activities throughout my life. I admit, it scares me how much gluten I consumed as a child. I worry about this consumption constantly and its how will affect my overall health for the rest of my life. But I cannot do anything about my past and all I can do is spread awareness to others to protect them in the future.

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, is conducting research on the perceptions of celiac disease among families where a member has been medically diagnosed. This research seeks to uncover the attitudes and beliefs of at-risk family members who have not been tested for the disease.

The study will have two phases: telephone focus groups and personal interviews, and an on-line survey. The telephone focus groups and personal interviews at phase one will impact and define the content of the on-line survey. This notice is for participation in phase 1, the telephone focus groups and personal interviews, which is now open.

All telephone focus group participants will receive a gift pack of coupons and/or healthy mainstream nutritional products with a gluten-free label valued at $15.

Results from the focus groups and personal interviews will guide the development of an online survey. The online survey will not open up until early March 2012, after the first phase of this study is completed.

If you wish to participate only in phase two, the online survey, please see instructions below entitled “Taking Part in Stage Two: the Survey.”

To be eligible, participants must:

Be 21 years or older

Speak fluent English

Have a biological relative (parent, sibling, child, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, grandparent, grandchild or half-sibling) who has been diagnosed with celiac disease.

NOT have been tested for celiac disease.

Are you eligible for the telephone focus groups or personal interviews?If not, do you know of someone who is?

To express interest in participation or to refer someone potentially eligible, please email the researcher at claudia_dolphin@emerson.edu. Make sure to include an email address where you or your referral can be reached. Indicate your preference for either a focus group or personal interview (which can be done over the phone). You or your referral may be sent a short 6-item questionnaire to confirm eligibility. If you do not hear from us, you can assume that phase one has been closed.

Taking Part in Stage Two: The Survey
If you are only interested in completing the survey, or know someone who might be interested in taking the survey, please email the researcher claudia_dolphin@emerson.edu. Make sure to include an email address where you or your referral can be reached. Also, include “Survey” in the subject line. Study investigators estimate that the survey will be available in early March 2012. The survey will be available for 2 weeks.

New York, NY, March 6, 2012 – The New York City Celiac Meetup Group will host the seventh annual Evening with the Paul Taylor Dance Company to benefit the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. The 7pm performance, featuring three masterworks by Paul Taylor – Oh, You Kid!, Beloved Renegade and Brandenburgs – will be preceded by a gluten-free light supper, provided by the Center, for special ticket-holders from 5:45 to 6:45pm in the theater’s Promenade.

“The Celiac Meetup Group is happy to host this fabulous event again after last year’s tremendous success,” said Meetup Group leader Erin Smith. “We’re providing our community with a great evening of dance while benefitting the important work of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University.” Ms. Smith said that last year’s event drew more than 125 people with celiac disease.

“We are thrilled that the Paul Taylor Dance Company teams with the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University,” said Peter Green, MD, Director of the Center. “The matchless artistry of Mr. Taylor and his dancers is truly inspiring.” Cynthia Beckman of the Center added, “We’re grateful to the Taylor Company not only for helping to raise awareness about celiac disease but for the funds they help raise as well.”

The series of performances, begun in 2004, was created by Alan Olshan, the Taylor Company’s Director of Marketing and Communications, who has celiac disease.

Oh, You Kid! contains a Coney Island-style revue of vaudeville numbers and a melodrama featuring a damsel in distress. Beloved Renegade depicts the experiences of an artist – “poet of the body and the soul” – described in Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.” The New York Times called it “the best new choreography of 2008” and hailed Mr. Taylor as “among the great war poets.” Brandenburgs is one of Mr. Taylor’s magnificent collection of works set to music by a master of the baroque, and the dance’s exuberance matches the ferocious energy of Bach’s spirited concertos.

Tickets for the evening are $300, $135, $75 and $25. A portion of each ticket benefits the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University when the buyer mentions promo code CELIAC at the box office (63rd Street and Columbus Avenue); when calling 212.496.0600; or online at www.ptdc.org/tickets. A facility fee of $2 applies to all tickets, and service charges apply to phone and web orders.

The Paul Taylor Dance Company’s 2012 season, its first at Lincoln Center, features 22 dances by Paul Taylor and runs from March 13 through April 1. The March 13 performance is sold out.